Like a lot of wagons and hatchbacks, the 124 wagon uses gas struts to hold up the tailgate. Unlike most vehicles, these are completely hidden in the structure of the car. I understand this was done both for aesthetic reasons as well as crash safety. My 300TE tailgate struts had started to fail. The tailgate would mostly stay up, but randomly it would slam...
Today I joined an informal group of S124 owners for a technical day. There was an expert in these cars visiting from Victoria, so it was an opportunity for every to get together and get some help on various projects on S124s. We were not off to a great start as there was torrential rain, so the original venue of somebody’s house was not...
The March 2023 night drive route was another new one. We try to rotate them around the city, so this one ventured south. The route started at McDonalds Heathcote, before venturing south on the Princes Highway (not motorway) and then turning onto Appin road before finishing up at the Campbelltown Chubby Buns burger truck. This is a different Chubby buns location to the...
I have been in the process of installing a Becker Grand Prix 1402 in my 1990 300TE. This is the model of radio it came with, although this particular radio is not original to this car. In the first installment, I sourced and tested the Becker 1402 and removed the Sony Xplod. In part two, I wired in the right connectors for the...
Yesterday, I started installing a Becker 1402 in my 1990 300TE. This was the radio it was sold with, and the same radio I have in my 1987 560SEC. I had removed the old Sony and inspected the wires, plus fixed my broken Hazard light switch. This morning I looked up the wiring colours for the Sony online. The wiring in the car has...
I purchased my 1990 Mercedes 300TE with a modern Sony Xplod CD player. It was a fairly low end model that sounded pretty bad and looks really out of place in the W124 dash. The passengers front speaker was not working, adding to the poor sound. The S124 has very silly speakers in the rear, one of the few design flaws in...
Since purchasing my 300TE, I haven’t been happy with the operating temperature. It hasn’t overheated, but it was running hotter on days in the mid to high 20s than I would like to see it. I want to be able to rely on the car on days well into the 40C range. My mechanic had suggested that the fan clutch be changed. I had...
Today I attended the monthly Machines and Macchiatos event in Terrey Hills. Last time I was able to attend was October 2022, when I took my DS. Today is a swelteringly hot day of almost 35C, much more suitable for a car with air conditioning. I don’t think I’ve taken my 250SE to one of these events before, so I brought it along. ...
Today I joined the MBCNSW for a drive to the Australian Motorlife Museum. The museum is located in Kembla Grange, near Dapto. It primarily focuses on pre war cars, motorbikes and automotive memorabilia and there are over 100 vehicles on display. I had previous visited the museum in 2018. I was looking forward to a return visit as the collection does change, and there is...
This last week my 250SE has been at the workshop having an alternator upgrade. Back in 2020, my alternator gave up, and I replaced it with a rebuilt 35A alternator. Ever since then, that alternator has struggled to charge the car. It would charge the battery when driving along during the day, without any accessories. But as soon as the A/C was...
The sunroof on my 280SE has not worked properly since I bought the car. It would sometimes move a bit, if I played with the switch, but not often. Since I didn’t want the roof stuck open, I didn’t use it. Based on that, I figured my issue was the W116 sunroof switch. The car is booked in for the Shannons auction in...
Earlier this year, I had the suspension spheres on my 1970 Citroen DS checked for pressure. The ride had become pretty terrible, so it was obvious there was a problem. We were able to successfully regas the fronts, but one of the rears was completely dead. It was time for some rebuilt rear spheres. My mechanic sent them away to Pleiadies in Queensland. They...
When I first got my 300TE registered, I had the A/C regassed as it wasn’t very cold. That made a huge difference as after that the car was ice cold. According to the service history, it had been a couple of years since it was last done, so it was probably about due. At the time, my mechanic suggested I replace the...
Ever since I purchased my 300TE, I had wanted to replace the aftermarket roof racks with the S124 factory cross bars. The car came with a set of Rhino Sportz roof racks, which looked like a decent, name brand roof rack. However, my wife was quite keen for a set of roof racks for her car, and these would fit perfectly. In addition, I...
After last month’s inner city night drive, for February we were back to our normal formula of less trafficked roads on the urban fringe. The drive route came from a suggestion from a MBCNSW member to visit Hawkesbury Lookout and Krispy Kreme. Penrith Krispy Kreme would be our starting point, as it closes at 11PM on a Thursday Night. It turned...
One of my friends in the Mercedes Club recently bought a nice original Mercedes-Benz 450SE. Is a 1979 model in Silver-Green metallic with date leather. It is equipped with a sunroof, which is surprisingly rare on an Australian delivered 450SE. The cars came well equipped with standard leather seats, self-leveling rear suspension, AC, power windows etc. The two features that they surprisingly didn’t have...
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